A senior Square Enix employee is being reported as publically saying that Final Fantasy XI will terminate in 2010, to be replaced by Final Fantasy XIV.

The remark was apparently made by one of Square Enix’s top HR people at the “Square Enix Recruiting Seminar 2011,” and duly reported on a personal blog by an attendee:

“I think some amongst you will know, but FF11 started in 2002 … Well, this year it’ll end and the stage will shift to FF14.”

The witness suspects the remark was inadvertent, but it is adamant it was made. Oddly, first the article and then the entire site which reported the remark were taken down shortly after.

Square Enix has previously assured players that any shutdown of the game would be announced a year in advance, so just what is going on is not clear.

A tweet from Square Enix’s CEO also denies the rumour, saying “that’d be troubling,” although this apparent rebuttal is rather short on details, such as whether the remarks were actually made and whether there is anything to them…

In any case, with the sequel nearing release and the original game increasingly showing its age, the day of any shutdown must be close at hand, and it seems pertinent that one of 2ch’s threads on the subject is entitled “How many people will commit suicide when FF11 ends?”

This is incredibly misleading and incorrect. Square Enix has stated MANY times that FFXI will not end until people stop playing it.

“I think some amongst you will know, but FF11 started in 2002 … Well, this year it’ll end and the stage will shift to FF14.”

What he’s saying is that the stage is shifting to FF14. Meaning it will be their main focus. And not FF11. They are not ending FFXI, by god you people really take things out of context. I can guarantee you this.

Whoever believes this is an idiot. FFXI is still one of the best MMO’s I have ever played. Sure, FFXI is challenging, and it makes you work to get what you want, but all in all it’s a good game for what its worth. It is the only MMO to not change their pricing plan. It is EASIER now than it was 6 years ago when I started, so whoever says it’s hard now, have no idea wtf they are talking about. FFXI is not dead or dying, yet.

Just because thats all people claim happens, doesn’t make it true. I bet even the ‘hardcore’ WoW guilds would die miserably leveling in simple places like Terrigan or Onzozo. That’s the funny thing. Crabs/birds are there for the lazy/impatient, a lot of people still wander out and do shit like goblin camping, cocatrices, raptors and whatnot.

I used to play on Bahamut before the server was locked for being overpopulated. Fastfoward a year later and its still locked, no new players have touched that server for so long seeing another player is like a rare spawn monster. Personally I’ve seen this comming for a long time.

If you’ve played FFXI then you’ve known for awhile that SE doesn’t really give a fuck about the player base.

The senior SE employee is sure good at trolling people. There has already been interviews in the past when FF14 is released will FF11 still be around and they have said yes.

They released 3 mini expansions about 3 months ago. Still a lot of new updates to FF11 like the evolith system which is incomplete. Wings of the Goddess missions still incomplete and its been over 2 years since the expansion has been released. Shutting down the servers with short notice would be a retarded choice.

Committing suicide over a game is very stupid but I wouldn’t be surprised since there are already enough stupid people in FF11 and IRL.

And then billions of people finally realized they wasted years of their life for nothing drinking and smoking and paid for it only to shorten their lifespan. Anyone can make up stupid shit to say on the internet.

Because playing a game that you enjoy is wasting years of your life for nothing.

the *new* game that replace the *old* need.to.be.in.the.market.for.more.then.a.year before you pull the plug on the old one.

in other words, you wait until the overwhelming majority of players have moved to the new game then start the year countdown for pulling the plug on the old game. It seems to me like the HR guy/gal have misunderstood this and assumed that the plug on the old game will be pulled when the new game is released.

as for the new game accepting whatever the user had in the old game (carry forward?!), that is something that we will need to wait till the end of the year to know about how it is going to be addressed

Wow, I JUST cancelled my subscription yesterday due to some issues with my credit card company, but this game’s been dying a slow death for a long time. The people on during prime time nowadays is half of what it was on off hours on my server (Lakshmi) a couple years ago. They really should give more notice, but the game’s had a decently long run. My hope is that Square Enix can’t resist the cash opportunity and rereleases ffxi, but balanced for single player. There’s a lot of things I still wanted to do ingame but just didn’t want to deal with the huge amount of drama that come in large group dynamics, not to mention FFXII was basically a faster paced FFXI as far as gameplay anywho.

In any event, let’s hope FFXIV takes the good parts of ffxi and modernizes it, because between the graphics, the slow gameplay system, and the ridiculous grind compared to newer MMOs, FFXI’s formula isn’t going to attract newcomers.

I once played this. Mithra Redmage level 32. Back in 2004. Long time ago. Then quite due to studies and just lack of motivation/entertainment to play the game.

As hard as it is to level up in that game, I have to wonder what the compensation will be. There’d better be some. Because spending all that time building a character with easy exp. loss risk is something not to just be thrown away.

I’d like to play again for the fresh XIV when it comes out. And it’s understandable that they’d try to wrap up XI. But it ought to come with a transfer. If I start over from the beginning when XIV comes out, I don’t deserve all the benefits of a person who played and paid Square Enix for several years and earned a high level character with good items.

It’s about time, the game itself was pretty fun, but endgame was utterly ridiculous.

You had to form an alliance of 18, have at least three hours free time, and very specific jobs just to do anything. I loved the party oriented aspect, but let’s get some fucking viable solo options too please.

not gonna happen, FF14 is by no means a replacement. its not a hardcore MMORPG. they just released new content for FF11 not to long ago. i predict at least 2 or 3 more years of FF11. they wouldn’t just make expansions and new content if they were just gonna shut the servers down.

there is info about it, and Youtube has leaked Gameplay Footage. it might look like FF11 with upgraded graphics but the level up system and job system is completely different. the info we have on it suggest that its not a long term MMO its easier and suggests that 3 people can easily do almost anything in the game together. compared to other MMORPG games such as FF11 and WoW which can sometimes require 18+ players working together.

Games that focus on strategy last longer, i can’t say for sure unless i get hands on gameplay myself, atm its just speculation. I’m sure FF11 won’t end at least until they figure out if FF14 is going to be a hit.

By “hardcore” do you mean grindfest or waiting for party member? SE took the problems that plagues MMO in general and replaced it. Issues like time difference of players, they introduced short to long instances that you varies in difficulty and member counts for leveling and farming. Weapon system that defines your job ability so departing players can be replaced.

MMO in nature evolves along with the core player base. Thus they have expansion introduces new game play and strategies.

So comparing FFxi before Zilart to FFxiv would be fair. That’s when the level cap was at 65 and it takes a week to get one level after 30. And Relic armor was God-like.

I don’t know if it has less strategic Gameplay but the Gameplay Movies and Information suggest that they changed pretty much the whole system to a faster, more actionlike one and did away with the levels (probably in favor of something like FFX or FFXII).
I suggest waiting for Information from the Beta first though before making Judgment.

“Real” MMORPGs require players to play 4+ hours a day in order to accomplish anything and cause you to lose an hour of progress if you make a single mistake.

See, that’s why WoW isn’t real. It’s possible for people who have full-time jobs and don’t live in their parents’ basement to spend 30 minutes playing it in an evening and not feel like they’ve gone backwards when they’re done.

I’d say the 15 dollars a month will keep the servers on for a long time. As the playerbase shrinks they will stop making expansions and reduce the number of servers by merging in order to keep themselves in the green. But no reason it can’t go for a long time to come.

More like who wants their stuff for longer than a few years anyway, i can understand personal characters and the items you have and stuff but how long do you want to play a game, 7 years, thats about 1/10 of the average age ratio. 5 years tops but 7? Come on…

Yeah but anons, i said who wants their stuff for that long, implying i was talking about rpg and mmo games in general not all games, even i can pick up starcraft or counterstrike and play it but they are different you can just pick them up and play whenever, rpg’s and mmo’s take time, they become a little of you but having them for that length of time is mad.

I assume this will go in affect worldwide since servers are shared internationally. It saddens me to see It end since I was one of them that played since the NA release. Alas, all must come to an end eventually, It was a good run.